Hastings: Thoughts on compassion

“You are tender and compassionate, YHWH — slow to anger, and always loving; … you never treat us as our sins deserve; you don’t repay us in kind for the injustices we do.” — Psalm 103:8, 10 The Inclusive Bible

With the highest incarceration rate in the world, our country seems a bit shy on compassion. Judgment and punishment seem more important than compassion in dealing with human failings. So how might a mass-incarceration nation rediscover divine compassion and make it a lived reality?

There is a Zen parable which speaks of a woman struggling with unfairness in life. After she had lost a child, she went to the ruler demanding that life be fair. The ruler told her, “Go and bring me a mustard seed from a house that has never seen sorrow, and I will promise you a life of fairness.” So the woman traveled from one village to another. She knocked on doors searching for someone who had never known sorrow. In one house she met a starving child. In another, she saw a woman caring for her sick husband. At another home she met siblings who had not spoken to each other in years. And in another she met a bride separated from her groom by war. After a time, she returned to the ruler who asked, “Have you found the mustard seed from the house that has never seen suffering?” And she said, “No, but I have found the gift of compassion.”

The psalmist found the gift of compassion by considering the brevity of life which everyone shares. Psalm 103 continues, “For you know what we are made of — you remember that we’re nothing but dust. We last no longer than grass, live no longer than a wildflower; one gust of wind and we’re gone, never to be seen again. Yet your love lasts from age to age.”

In the midst of human failings, unfairness, and the brevity of life, divine compassion is offered to all. Those who receive this gift are equipped to offer love in action and build compassionate communities and nations.

The Rev. Celia M. Hastings has a master’s degree in religious education from Western Theological Seminary in Holland. She is author of “The Wisdom Series” and “The Undertaker’s Wife.”

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Hastings: Thoughts on compassion